In the post-electoral period of healthy introspection and soul searching the political parties are going through, the explanation behind the new Nationalist Party majority in the country must not be ignored, especially by Labour.
The electoral result indicates that Labour's reliance on the MEP elections and the local council results as a prediction of the 2008 general election outcome was, to say the least, premature if not an outright political blunder.
Many were those Labourites, even within the party's structure, who privately referred to the string of positive results at the European and local council level as a confirmation of their electoral strategy to win the 2008 general election. Each round of local election results was interpreted as a confirmation of a swing in Labour's direction.
In fact it was not. It was an indication of an electorate on the move, capable of giving different messages according to the type of election contested. In fact, Alternattiva Demokratika obtained nine per cent of the first preferences in the European election against one per cent at the 2008 general election.
Many considered the Nationalist victory of 2003 as the fulfilment of the second Fenech Adami majority (1998-2003). It became an electorate in search of a new mission.
Eddie Fenech Adami had given new life to his first majority by injecting the EU mission into his party, creating a new majority firmly rooted around the central issue of what Malta was to be for the next generation: Partnership or EU. The 1998 majority gave the PN a national mandate to enter the EU followed up by the 2003 result which defended the yes verdict at the EU referendum. The majorities the PN obtained in some of the key districts reached historic levels.
Many within the PN thought that entry into the EU and a brand new leader meant the 2004 European election was going to be a walkover. In fact, the opposite happened.
Labour unexpectedly returned three candidates against two for the PN. This was the first sign that the electorate was on the move and also that the electorate was adjusting to the new electoral realities where the voter would feel free to vote differently at the local elections or the European Parliament elections as compared to the general election.
Labour fatally misunderstood this message. It gave the MLP the false security that they were electable with the old leadership. It also convinced Labour strategists to put their EU differences under the carpet by adopting the unconvincing "partnership was right but..." compromise which exploded in their faces when their leader looked more and more eurosceptic as the electoral campaign progressed.
On the contrary, the European election result and a string of disappointing results at the local council elections served as rallying calls for the Prime Minister and his party to ask the electorate to give Lawrence Gonzi his first popular mandate marking the transition from the Fenech Adami majority to a new majority.
It explains why Dr Gonzi became the first Prime Minister to be returned to office with a majority in the country notwithstanding entering into the shoes of an incumbent Prime Minister.
More fundamentally, up till now no Prime Minster managed to keep a majority for more than the natural 10-year cycle, the Borg Olivier (1962-1971), Mintoff (1971-1981) and Fenech Adami (1987-1996 and 1998-2003) majorities included.
The third consecutive PN majority is proof that the electorate has moved on once more and that the new Gonzi majority is a reality.